Name: Mahesh “Max” Ganorkar
Age: 60
Party affiliation: Republican
Campaign website: www.MaxForCongress.com
Occupation & employer: Residential Construction Project Manager – Self Employed – GRCC
Years lived in the area: 12
1. What are your primary concerns for the State of North Carolina?
“The issues I hear most often from North Carolinians include:
- Job opportunities and economic mobility
- Public safety and community security
- Rising healthcare and insurance costs
- School opportunities and zip-code-based disparities, particularly their impact on Black and minority communities
- Home and auto insurance rates tied to credit scores
- Housing affordability and access to homeownership
- The rising cost of everyday goods and services”
2. What in your background qualifies you to represent the people of this state effectively? What would you cite as your biggest career accomplishments?
“My strongest qualification is my business perspective and real-world experience. I hold an MBA in International Finance and Marketing and have spent my career as an entrepreneur and business owner.
My experience working on international joint ventures has given me a broader perspective on how businesses, especially small businesses and manufacturers, can compete and grow in global markets. I believe North Carolina has a tremendous and untapped potential to create jobs, expand manufacturing, help small businesses grow, and take our homegrown products and capabilities to the world.
I want to bring that entrepreneurial, pro-business, and globally minded perspective to Congress to help create more opportunities for North Carolina families and businesses.”
3. If elected, what three policies would you prioritize and how would you work across the aisle to enact those initiatives?
“1. Lower Insurance Premiums
For decades, many minority and low-income communities were harmed by redlining, in which insurers and lenders restricted access to services or charged higher rates based largely on where people lived. This unfair practice contributed to generations of reduced economic opportunity.
Today, we should pursue bipartisan reforms that lower insurance costs and expand access to affordable coverage, while ensuring that pricing reflects legitimate risk rather than unfairly penalizing communities or individuals. Lowering the cost of home and auto insurance should be a priority for working families.
- Mortgage Interest-Rate Stability
The American Dream of homeownership should not be undermined by dramatic swings in interest rates. I would support exploring a fixed-rate mortgage policy for a borrower’s primary residence, limited to the first mortgage.
Greater predictability in mortgage payments would give home buyers and homeowners more certainty, help stabilize the housing market, and strengthen confidence in homeownership. The American Dream must remain accessible to working Americans.
- Healthcare Insurance Vouchers
My healthcare approach puts patients—not bureaucrats—in control. I would provide healthcare insurance vouchers directly to eligible citizens through the tax-filing process, putting purchasing power in the hands of individuals and families.
The vouchers would be used exclusively to purchase health insurance, allowing people to choose plans that fit their needs, with catastrophic coverage as a minimum standard. I would also support enabling Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, increasing competition and giving consumers more choices with the goal of lowering costs. Healthcare dollars should follow the patient, not the bureaucracy.”
4. Federal cuts to Medicaid are expected to cost the state $50 billion over the next decade, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. How would you address Medicaid funding to maintain coverage for the millions of North Carolinians enrolled?
“My healthcare approach puts patients—not bureaucrats—in control. I would provide healthcare insurance vouchers directly to eligible citizens through the tax-filing process, putting purchasing power in the hands of individuals and families.
The vouchers would be used exclusively to purchase health insurance, allowing people to choose plans that fit their needs, with catastrophic coverage as a minimum standard. I would also support allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, increasing competition and giving consumers more choices with the goal of lowering costs. Healthcare dollars should follow the patient, not the bureaucracy.”
5. How would you address the rising costs of housing, childcare, and basic necessities facing North Carolina families?
Everything has gone up in price — except our paychecks. 🙁
Working families are paying high prices right now. Tariffs and wars around the world have driven costs higher in the short term. The tariffs must be eliminated for immediate relief. America still holds an unmatched economic, technological, and strategic leverage—and we must use it to confront unfair trading partners without forcing American households to foot the bill.
Energy dependence is holding us back. Relying on foreign oil, especially volatile Middle Eastern markets, weakens the American economy and leaves families exposed to shocks they did not cause. America should produce more of its own oil for domestic use. America should build more domestic refineries and nuclear plants. We can then put that reliable power to work so the shift to electric vehicles is real, secure, and affordable.
6. Thousands of North Carolina workers lost their jobs in 2025 due to federal budget cuts—RTI and FHI 360 alone have laid off hundreds of employees, while Duke and UNC face massive funding cuts and hiring freezes. How would you address both the human toll and the long-term economic impact of these federal funding changes on our state?
Growing government should never be the default path to human or economic growth. We must eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in government-funded programs and ensure taxpayer dollars deliver real results. At the same time, when non-profit organizations receiving substantial federal funding face layoffs, taxpayers deserve accountability. RTI International’s CEO earned more than $1.2 million in 2023, with four other executives earning more than $800,000 and five earning more than $500,000; FHI 360’s CEO received about $500,000. When highly compensated executives coexist with layoffs tied to federal funding cuts, we should ask whether taxpayer dollars are being used as efficiently as possible. Savings from eliminating waste should be redirected toward citizens and toward policies that encourage sustainable private-sector job creation in North Carolina.
7. Climate disasters are intensifying: Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina in 2024, Tropical Storm Chantal flooded the Triangle in 2025, and coastal erosion threatens the Outer Banks. With much affordable housing located in flood-prone areas and FEMA resources stretched thin, what is your plan for climate resilience and disaster relief?
It is important to put today’s “climate crisis” narrative in historical perspective. Since the 1970s, the terminology and predictions have repeatedly changed—from Global Cooling to Global Warming, to Climate Change, and now the broader “Climate Crisis.” For more than 50 years, Americans have been told that energy production is at the root of an impending environmental catastrophe.
Having lived under socialism, I have seen firsthand what happens when governments gain excessive control over energy: blackouts and brownouts disrupt agriculture and manufacturing, supply chains falter, investment declines, and families ultimately face higher prices, scarcity, and unemployment. Reliable and affordable energy is essential to human prosperity, and energy policy should not become a tool for government control over people’s lives.
At the same time, we must be responsible stewards of our natural resources. Building permits should not encourage development in known flood-prone areas, particularly when taxpayers are later expected to fund repeated disaster recovery. We should preserve wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and other natural buffers that can help reduce flooding and erosion. FEMA resources should prioritize helping families recover while encouraging mitigation and responsible development before disasters occur.
We can protect our environment, prepare for natural disasters, and preserve reliable, affordable energy without sacrificing economic opportunity or individual freedom.
I encourage readers to watch this video I have put together to show the ill intentions of those pushing climate crisis: https://youtube.com/shorts/L9Qzo1gb-lM
8. Last year, federal agents arrested more than 250 people in immigration enforcement operations across North Carolina, creating fear in immigrant communities and disrupting businesses and schools. How do you view the enforcement actions, and how would you address their impact on North Carolina’s economy and communities?
I find the premise of this question somewhat misleading. It frames immigration enforcement primarily as creating “fear” in immigrant communities, while failing to distinguish between law-abiding legal immigrants and people who have violated U.S. immigration laws.
I am an immigrant myself, and I earned the honor of becoming a U.S. citizen by following the law and playing by the rules. ICE and other immigration authorities have a responsibility to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and lawful immigrants should not be made to fear enforcement simply because they are immigrants. Lawbreakers should be fearful and self-deport themselves because the long arms of the law will get them.
At the same time, North Carolina businesses; particularly agriculture, construction, hospitality, and other seasonal industries, need access to workers when American labor is unavailable. We need a legal, orderly, and fair Labor Exchange system where seasonal workers could be vetted through U.S. embassies, legally matched with American employers, protected from exploitation, and required to return home when their authorized work period ends. This would support North Carolina businesses, protect American workers, respect the rule of law, and treat temporary immigrant workers fairly.
9. Federal contractors are no longer required to maintain non-discrimination policies, and many DEI-related programs have been eliminated across sectors in our state. What is your view on recent changes to DEI and anti-discrimination policies?
Again, I believe this question carries a particular left-leaning political framing. I am a brown-skinned, non-Christian immigrant, with a wife and children, and I believe we should all be judged by the content of our character and the merit of our work and NOT by the color of our skin, our creed, or our religion.
I believe DEI policies can become reverse discrimination when race, color, creed, or religion is used to give preference to one person over another rather than judging people on merit and individual qualifications. We should not perpetuate the divisions of the past by constantly reminding Americans of their racial differences.
We should acknowledge our history, learn from it, and then come together as one nation and one human family. Racism of the past is a wound, which will heal if left alone. We have enough laws to prevent discrimination, but the race hustlers would rather scratch the wound and make America bleed for their own ulterior political motives.
History is witness to the fact that the White race in America fought its own race (The American Civil War) to free black slaves. No other country, race, color, creed or religion has a record like that. PERIOD. That painful history should remind us not only of the injustice of slavery, but also of America’s capacity to confront its own failures and move toward a more perfect union.
I believe the goal should be equal opportunity, not equal outcomes; merit, not mandated preferences; and unity, not permanent division. We should protect every American from discrimination while giving every individual the opportunity to succeed based on character, ability, hard work, and merit.
10. Federal education funding faced significant delays and cuts in 2025, affecting Title I programs, teacher training, and after-school services in North Carolina. How will you work to ensure stable federal education funding for our state’s schools?
Americans need to think outside the box about the future of education. While legal racial segregation has ended, “zip-code segregation” still limits many children to schools based on where they live. Every child deserves access to a quality education regardless of income or ZIP code.
I support expanding school choice and education vouchers, with funding following the student through the parents’ tax return. Parents—not government bureaucracies or lobbyists—should have the primary authority over their children’s education.
We should encourage private and vocational schools, measure schools by academic outcomes, protect parental rights, and reduce special-interest influence. Greater choice and competition can expand opportunity, improve accountability, and create economic activity across education, construction, transportation, food services, and other industries.
11. President Trump has dramatically expanded executive power through emergency declarations, the use of federal agents in cities without local coordination, and the initiation of a war in Iran without Congressional approval. What role should Congress play in checking executive power?
As with your other questions, this one contains an element of leftist misstatement. President Trump has flaws, but he was elected with a clear mandate: to end the open-border policies of the prior Democratic era. Those policies contributed to higher crime, wage pressure on American workers, child sex trafficking, drugs that have devastated families, and a welfare system strained by services for non-citizens. Democrats at the federal, state, and local levels often refused to enforce existing immigration law. That refusal is a matter of public record in their own statements and actions. Faced with that hostility from Democrat-run cities and states, Trump used the tools available to him to do what voters elected him to do.
On Iran, context matters. President Obama sent pallets of cash to the Iranian regime; President Biden later unfroze Iranian assets. Both knew the regime was a terrorist government that repressed its own people, especially women and children, and it was also enriching uranium toward a nuclear weapon. An unstable, nuclear-armed Iran would have further destabilized the Middle East. The campaign began with the removal of senior regime figures, but dictatorships have a chain of command; that chain was not fully broken. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the Shah, should be restored so Iranians can have a chance at self-government again.
I do not have the classified intelligence that the President and the intelligence community had when they ordered the strike on Iran. In a case like that, a president may have to act first if the threat or opportunity to destroy is real and delay would make it worse. Preemption is sometimes the only way to stop a future attack or a nuclear breakout. That does not give President Trump an unchecked power to continue months of war, a campaign to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, and any effort to change the regime to free the people of Iran.
12. Both Democrats and Republicans are experiencing severe internal divisions. How would you navigate disagreements within your own party while still effectively representing North Carolina’s interests? Or, if you are running as an Independent, how will you work effectively with both parties?
“Most Americans, Democrats and Republicans, are good-hearted people. They just want to live their American Dream and be free from extreme ideologies. There are issues such as public safety, education, healthcare costs, and affordability where we can find bipartisan support. I can find common ground on those issues and work across the aisle.
The Democrat Party has a severe internal division. Democratic Socialists of America are pulling the strings to turn this great nation into a socialist “”paradise””. Radical Islam has also taken a deep hold in the party. Those who buy into these two radical ideologies are buying the rope from which their future generations will hang. As an immigrant, I have seen both ideologies play out in their ugliest forms in the country I came from. Americans (I hope not) will find out the hard way.
On the Republican side, the alt-right MAGA faction threatens immigrants and claims America as their land alone. I am a firm believer in the U.S. Constitution and know those threats are empty, because the law supports those of us who came here legally and have lived by the rules. The majority of the Republican Party strongly believes in the Constitution, and that is why I feel safe in it.”
13. Give an example of an opinion, policy, vote or action you changed based on constituent feedback. If you have not yet held elected office, describe a time when you changed your position on an issue after listening to those affected by it.
Growing up in India, I always heard about gun violence in America. The socialist government, through its controlled media, created a false narrative that Americans were crazy people walking around with guns and shooting each other, and that was why guns were not good to own. In reality, the bad guys and radical Islamists always had access to illegal guns, and most Indians were sitting ducks for their atrocities.
After coming to America and learning about the founding of this great nation, I realized the importance of the Second Amendment: “… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It is not only a powerful tool for defending life and property, but also a deterrent against crime. Most important of all, the Second Amendment gives citizens the ability to resist a tyrannical government. A classic example in modern times was the Bundy Ranch standoff.
I have also observed that socialists, communists, and radical Islamists through their base in the Democrat party always talk about infringing on the Second Amendment, because that clears the way for them to clamp down on people and their freedoms. My lived experience and observations are the reasons, why I take the right to keep and bear arms seriously.
14. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?
“Trump hate is real among some segments of American politics. As an immigrant from India, I know firsthand that some of the words and actions associated with Trump 2.0 and the alt-right have been insensitive toward India and Indian Americans.
That said, based on my personal experience and perspective, I believe America is still better served by patriotic Americans in the Republican Party than by political movements within the Democrat party that embrace socialism or radical Islamist ideology. These ideologies will kill the American Dream forever for our future generations.
I would urge voters not to throw America from the frying pan into the fire. Trump’s approach can at times be blunt and insensitive, and I do not agree with everything he says or does. But I believe we should distinguish between policies we may disagree with and policies that could fundamentally weaken our nation.
Most importantly, I encourage every voter to think wisely, critically, and independently — NOT emotionally. Our country’s future is too important to be decided by anger, fear, or hatred. Our future generations depend on our decisions today.”
